JOEL. There's more stuff over here.
[He goes off, right; Ellen follows him.
ANDREW. [To The Figure.] I should like the judgment of your experience, sir. I can't quite see your face, yet you appear to be one who has had a great deal of experience.
THE FIGURE. Why, consid'able some.
ANDREW. Did you—happen to fight in the late war for independence?
THE FIGURE. Happen to? [Laughing quietly.] N-no, not fight; ye see—I was paymaster.
ANDREW. But you went through the war?
THE FIGURE. Ye-es, oh, yes; I went through it. I took out my fust reg'lar papers down to Philadelphie, in '76, seems like 'twas the fourth day o' July. But I was paymaster afore that.
ANDREW. Tell me: I've heard it said there were deserters even in those days, even from the roll-call of Washington. Is it true?
THE FIGURE. True, boy? Have ye ever watched a prairie-fire rollin' toward ye, billowin' with flame and smoke, and seed all the midget cowerin' prairie-dogs scootin' for their holes? Wall, that's the way I watched Howe's army sweepin' crosst the Jarsey marshes, and seed the desartin' little patriots, with their chins over their shoulders, skedaddlin' home'ards.